Israeli President Isaac Herzog has begun consultations with political parties on who should be tasked with forming a new governing coalition. He took the step after receiving the official results of last week’s general election, which he said had produced no clear winner.
Neither the bloc led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor the one led by his rival, Gadi Eisenkot, secured a majority in parliament. Herzog told party leaders that “not every commitment and promise can be fulfilled” if they want to avoid another election.
How the 27 October vote left Israel without a majority
In the election held on 27 October, Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, together with its far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies, won 53 of the 120 seats in the Knesset. Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar party and three other Jewish opposition parties in his bloc took 48 seats.
Also read: Israel election yields no majority as vote count finishes
Two Arab-led alliances, the United Arab List and the Joint List, together won 19 seats. That is a record for them, and it followed a sharp rise in turnout among Arab voters. The result makes them potential kingmakers, but all except one of the Jewish parties had pledged before the vote not to work with them to form a government.
The presidency in Israel is largely ceremonial. After an election, however, the president invites a Knesset member to try to build a government, and that person has 28 days to do so, with a possible 14-day extension. Herzog has wide discretion to choose whoever he believes has the best chance of assembling a coalition, and he is not required to pick the leader of the party with the most seats.
Officials reject fraud claims as Shin Bet examines foreign funding
Electoral officials said they had found no evidence of irregularities. They added that unsubstantiated claims from Netanyahu’s camp, which accused Arab-led parties of stealing the election, did not justify delaying certification of the results.
The Shin Bet security service is investigating allegations of foreign interference. The head of the Central Elections Committee, Justice Noam Sohlberg, stressed that these allegations would not fundamentally change the outcome.
Sohlberg told a committee meeting that Shin Bet intelligence appeared to point to a “widespread phenomenon involving the influx of substantial funds into Israel from foreign states”, some of them hostile. He said further work was needed to “connect the dots and determine the scale of the phenomenon with a high degree of certainty”.
Israeli media reported last week that the committee had been presented with a claim that Qatar had provided funding aimed at raising voter turnout in Arab communities. Qatar’s foreign ministry said it categorically denied the allegation.
Herzog urges patience and condemns racist rhetoric
On Wednesday morning, Sohlberg handed Herzog the official results at a ceremony in Jerusalem. He warned that voices recently trying to cast doubt on the results and undermine their legitimacy posed “a real danger”.
Herzog announced that consultations would begin that evening. He said he expected factions and their representatives to accept, in the current situation, that not every promise could be kept, so that Israel could avoid another round of elections. He also said he had confidence in the Shin Bet’s ability to investigate and appealed for patience.
Herzog warned that Arab Israelis, who make up about one fifth of the population and often describe themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel, “must not be smeared”. He added: “I condemn the coarseness and racist expressions that we have heard recently. There is no place for them toward any community in Israel.”
Rival camps trade accusations over the probe
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the Jewish Power party and an ally of the prime minister, called on the Shin Bet to arrest all the leaders of Arab parties and question them “until these suspicions are fully clarified”. Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen accused Ben-Gvir and Netanyahu of attempting to “steal the election from the public”.
On Tuesday, Eisenkot alleged that Netanyahu and Likud were “trying to carry out a veritable pogrom against democracy and the rule of law”. His remarks followed a decision by Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara to reject a reported demand by Shin Bet chief David Zini, an appointee of the prime minister, to interrogate four Arab politicians. She said no evidence of wrongdoing had been presented.
Likud responded by accusing Baharav-Miara of trying to “obstruct the investigation and to cover up this serious case of manipulation of the electoral process by foreign actors”.
